Destroyed on the boards.

[Tenspro2002]

Fear can be a good thing. Jim Calhoun's players feared him on the sidelines. Fear of him calling a quick T and dropping the hammer of the gods on someone who didn't D up or box out.

Our good rebounding teams didn't rebound because they were afraid of JC. Our good rebounding teams rebounded well because they had the size, instincts, and most of all, tenacity to do so.

Frankly, every one of our frontcourt players is a major liability in at least one of those areas:

Daniels -- physically unimposing and also shies away from contact, plays soft
Olander -- least athletic player we've had in decades
Nolan -- way too skinny, timid on the court
Brimah -- butcher-shop raw, no basketball instincts, and poor hands (though I'd say he has the most upside in terms of rebounding, given that he has the best motor)
Facey -- undersized at his position

Our best rebounders, in terms of instincts and having a nose and desire for the ball, are Bazz, Boat, and Kromah.

 

[huskyharry]

Men against skinny boys. Slow and timid skinny boys. If only someone over 6'6" had the heart of Bazz or Boat.

That is a lot of it. The refs also have a consistent tendency to not reward skinny players with fouls when there is contact, unless the contact is aggregious. Whereas they love to give and 1s to muscular players who create the contact. How many times did Boat and Bazz drive inside and get bumped and no foul was called...it sure seemed like a lot.
Now next year, when we have Rodney Purvis and TSamuel gets more PT, plus Sam Cassell Jr. We should benefit from that tendency.
That being said, we overcame that problem against Memphis, Florida, Indiana, Harvard by being more aggressive on offense (attacking, not waiting until the end of the shot clock to jack a contested three) and much more consistently boxing out (way too much ball watching and both of the bigs trying for a block and giving L'ville an easy put back).
The horrible call and the ridiculously quick double tech clearly hurt us ( 5 points lost directly and an additional 5 or 6 due to loss of composure), but the awful execution against the zone for the first 27 minutes and the lack of attention to detail on boxing out were bigger factors IMO.

 

[Hi-Low]

DD is not a 4 and never will be, Nolan needs to hit the weights or get a jump shot, Brimah is a shot-blocker specialist for now, Olaner should gone have to ND...not an interior banger, Facey is who knows?, Roscoe left because he didn't want play the 4 and now he's still a 4. UConn doesn't have a legitimate 4/5. This year will be mostly on Bazz to take us to the promised land.

We have guards/wings on team/in pipeline coming out of the wazoo....The Rock is hopefully ready, maybe add a JUCO 4 for 2014/15. Purvis, Cassel, Hamilton have good size and skills....just need some more Beef.

 

[jibsey]

Even as we are we can beat and compete with good teams on any given night. Besides Lubin I would like to see another strongman added next year, I'm sure it's a priority after this.

 

[Danpisco12]

Ollie inherited a team with super quick but small guards.

He got Purvis as a transfer and Cassell, Jr too. Both are bigger guards.

First full recruiting class included Rubin.

He knows what he is missing and is addressing it.

Unfortunately there aren't mid-season trades in college.

Patience.

I'll be surprised if UConn doesn't add another thick body in the spring.

Add in Hamilton and that is a pretty large backcourt. Then factor in Lubin upfront, who has the kind of size we need, coupled with Brimah. UConn will look like a drastically different team.

 

[David 76]

Our bigs don't grab the ball. Again last night, so many rebounds bounce bounce off their fingers to end up in the opponent's hands. Only the guards seem to have an idea how to time a jump and grab a rebound.

 

[huskyharry]

Our bigs don't grab the ball. Again last night, so many rebounds bounce bounce off their fingers to end up in the opponent's hands. Only the guards seem to have an idea how to time a jump and grab a rebound.

This team has some great talents, distributed among several players. Unfortunately, many if the same players with great talent also have glaring weaknesses in their games. AB has super natural shot blocking ability, but he has weak hands and struggles to snatch the ball, a trait shared by DD, PN, OC and at times TO (sometimes To does a good job with snatching the ball but struggles to move his feet to get into position to rebound).
DD, although streaky, can be a lights out perimeter shooter. He also has an uncanny ability to make a spin move and make difficult, off-balance shots. He alsomhas very good shot-blocking instincts. But at the same time, he tends to be clumsy with his feet and doesn't have a good base, which coupled with weak grip strength means he tends to fumble the ball away a lot and he is easily knocked out of position. He has very good speed up the floor and with a head if steam, can elevate quite well. But he also has a slow first step and also lacks the lateral quickness to cover good college three. I think his slow first step contributes to how many times he takes the ball weakly to the rim.

Omar is lacking confidence lately but when on can be an effective three point and mid-range shooter. But he is not a good dribbler or passer and also has weak hand grip strength.
We can't make a trade before the deadline, so Coach Ollie's challenge is to keep a team with a relatively fragile overall psyche (and a cople very up and down players) motivated and on track and develop schemes on offense and defense that can cover up the collective weaknesses and accentuate the strengths. With how much film is readily available and smart opposing coaches who make adjustments themselves, it is quite a tall task. 13 times it has worked out well, 4 times it has not.
I don't think any alternative choice at coach could do any better. All of our players have weaknesses. Few teams that we will see are as lacking in height and muscle across the board as we are and also lacking in basic skills and hand strength among the bigs as we do.

 

[freescooter]

Dickie all game about Daniels 2 fouls in the first half took him out of his game, I don't agree, he was manhandled by stronger players both ways as was the whole team. Physically it looked like a mismatch body wise. No strength down low is a big recruiting mistake.

That is rwhat I said about or bigs after Bimah's good game. Even though he had a great game, its difficult to count on him since he isn't a big strong guy. He is gets pushed around way too much as do our other bigs. None of them are big physical power forwards/centers. This team really needs someone more along the lines of a Kevin Freeman or Jeff Adrian type of rebounder. Daniels is really not that type of player. I had hoped Facey might play that kind of role, but I have my doubts since he doesn't get off the bench on a team that needs rebounding help.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Daniels is our best big rebounder. He has great potential as a rebounder because of length and quickness.
Rebounding is more about position than bulk or strength. Getting that position requires desire. Daniels future lively-hood will be determined by whether he is willing to pay the price.
He got in early foul trouble which essential took him out of the game.
The kid doesn't need much discouragement to shut him down. That has to change and it's somewhat on the coaches to keep him focused.


This board has a penchant for over-reacting to wins and losses.
To individual good games and bad games.
We had previously out rebounded our last two opponents with these same guys.
Forgotten already.

This is this year, we have to get the most out of what we have.

It will be Daniels and Brimah-Nolan for the rest of the season.
In fact this years team has more potential than next year simply because Bazz is not replaceable. You also loose Giffey, Kromah,and Olander,maybe even Boat and Daniels.

 

[freescooter]

I get what you're saying but I don't completely agree. While its true that rebounding is about positioning, the ability to get and hold positions, especially on the defensive end I think, is partly a matter of physical strength, and Bimah, and Nolan don't have that. So add that to a lack of experience and a somewhat low basketball IQ, on Brimah's part (which I think is largely related ot lack of experience) and you have problems.

 

[storrsroars]

I didn't want to start a new thread on this, so since we're talking rebounds, AO is currently playing on CBSSN with Erie. The announcers cited his inside D but were dumping on him for not having an NBA game - looking to dish inside instead of creating shots.

 

[jibsey]

I didn't want to start a new thread on this, so since we're talking rebounds, AO is currently playing on CBSSN with Erie. The announcers cited his inside D but were dumping on him for not having an NBA game - looking to dish inside instead of creating shots.

Jeez, Erie huh? No that's OK he was a body for us, not spectacular but he held his space took a few boards and could score a bit. Even though it doesn't sound like much we needed it to win a championship. Look, I agree that it's one loss and not to get nuts over it and we will still compete with the best teams on a nightly basis even without strength.

 

[Strummer]

I didn't want to start a new thread on this, so since we're talking rebounds, AO is currently playing on CBSSN with Erie. The announcers cited his inside D but were dumping on him for not having an NBA game - looking to dish inside instead of creating shots.

Lord. I didn't realize this. He's a short drive from me. Should I go to one of the games and cheer for the MuMu?

On a serious note, if I did go and see him, I'd shake his hand and thank him for bringing 2011 home.

 

[storrsroars]

Jeez, Erie huh? No that's OK he was a body for us, not spectacular but he held his space took a few boards and could score a bit.

I've paid no attention to D league and was surprised at some of the names on rosters. Even Rashad is still playing at 30. But he's not even closest to oldest guy out there. Ricky Davis might be.

 

[Marat]

UConn crushed UCF on the boards. They out rebounded every other team including LVille. I think that game (along with Memphis) showed UConn can rebound when both DD and AB get the minutes, are not in foul trouble, and DD is energized. Otherwise it becomes tough.